If Spencer Carbery ends up becoming a first-time NHL head coach, the Washington Capitals are the favorites.
This reporting comes from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, who made the revelation on the latest episode of the 32 Thoughts Podcast.
The NHL Insider also mentioned current Hershey Bears head coach Todd Nelson as a possible candidate and clarified his reporting about Jeff Halpern’s initial interview.
Now the only reason he might be going back in there is if there’s a second interview, but I don’t know if that’s the case. Carbery, I think, spoke to three or four teams last week. I think he spoke to the Rangers, I think he spoke to the Ducks, I think he spoke to the Capitals obviously and there might have been another.
Everybody kind of thinks that Washington is the team to beat here, that they’re the ones who are most eager to get him. I think we’ll see an answer to that pretty soon.
The other people they’ve interviewed – they’ve interviewed Halpern and they’ve interviewed Brad Shaw. If they’ve interviewed others, I don’t know about them. They’ve interviewed Brad Shaw for sure.
I would wonder if Brad Shaw is going to get any talk somewhere else. That’s a guy who I would love to see get a real shot somewhere. There’s a lot of people out there who really like Brad Shaw, really respect him. I would really like to see that some day. Todd Nelson – they’re still in the playoffs right now, so I don’t know what’s going on with that, but definitely there’s a feeling that Carbery is the favorite.
Carbery spent three seasons as the head coach of the Hershey Bears, leading the team to the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL’s best team in the regular season and winning the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award for Coach of the Year in 2021.
He left the Capitals organization that summer to join the Toronto Maple Leafs after initially signing a multi-year extension to remain head coach of the Bears. In Toronto, Carbery led the Leafs’ power play as an assistant coach under Sheldon Keefe. The Leafs’ power play ranked second in the league during the regular season, behind only the Edmonton Oilers’ two-headed monster of McDavid and Draisaitl.
Once the Leafs were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Carbery was reportedly interviewed by the New York Rangers and Anaheim Ducks – and perhaps other clubs.
If the Hershey Bears advance to the Calder Cup Finals — they’re currently up three games to one in the AHL’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Rochester Americans — the Capitals’ coaching search could push well into June should they wait to talk to Nelson.
May 30 update: The Capitals are reportedly planning to hire Carbery as their next head coach.
